Psalms 77 & 78 - Radio Shack

I miss Radio Shack. I miss those tiny strip mall shops that were packed tightly with Tandy electronics, wires, cables, electronic pieces, and most of all, people who just knew what they were talking about. I have many fond memories of trips to Radio Shack with my dad back in the day and then other trips in years after I moved away. I knew that if I needed that one kind of audio cable, that I could find it there. If I needed a connector to extend RCA cables, I could find them. It was Radio Shack that had all the components that allowed me to rig up an incredible system for using an ipod (yes an ipod) to control back-of-seat screens for our little kids on road trips. I found all the connectors, splitters, and switches needed. I had forgotten how much I missed Radio Shack when I pulled out the digital tire pressure guage to check one of my car tires this morning and saw Radio Shack printed on the side in that simple yet recognizable font.

I don’t know when I got this tool but it has been a while and I still have never had to change the battery in it. And even though the image shows 00.0, it had just changed from showing that my tire was just fine.

Remembering and celebrating what has come before.

Above, I’m remembering and celebrating those small shops that so many of us frequented to find that one little thing that we needed at 8pm setting up something in our house or zipping in because we were at an event and forgot the adapter we needed. I’m remembering and celebrating the times that I was there with my dad and the times I took my younger kids (before Radio Shack as I knew it went away). I am remembering and celebrating the wires, transistors, tools, toys, projects, and so much more that filled those small shops. I’m remembering and celebrating the stuff but also the relationships and the feelings.

Psalm 77 engages with this but first begins in absence - “Will you cast me off forever? Will I never gain your favor again?” It stays with this absence through the first half of the song.

But then the second half shifts with this:

“Against this I will recall your doing, contemplate your being...you, architect of wonders... you, author of strength who saved the struggling, the captured, people.”

The song then goes to a central story of the Jewish people - the crossing of the sea at the start of the Exodus out of enslavement in Egypt. It speaks of the breadth of the work of God through this event and then ends in a deeply personal sense with

“You led us like a flock in Moses’ and Aaron’s care.”

It is the remembering and the celebrating that allows one to stay above the waters in the absence of the first half of the Psalm. The absence of feeling the presence of God in that first half is held alongside all the remembrances and celebrations of what God has done before. Psalm 78 picks up on this a bit as well as, through 72 verses, the writer shares of God’s goodness and God’s acts (and also throws in a fair bit of noting the disobedience of the people as well) in an act of remembering (if not necessarily celebrating).

But it isn’t just a nostaligia but instead, especially in 77, it is used as a reminder and an encouragemnet for the present day and a hope for the future. All of it ties together. We can each get so oriented to one of those areas that we miss the others. We can get stuck holding to a past that has been, is often remembered with rose-tinted glasses, and will never be again and miss what is happening in the present and lose hope for a future. Or we can be so “in the moment” that we forget how much wisdom, experience, and learnings have come before and so we end up repeating the mistakes of the past. Or we can be so “looking just to the future” that we have no appreciation for the foundations our lives are built upon or don’t have the ability to be truly “present.” And as I’m writing this, I am feeling the balancing between the three and the tension that comes of continuing to adjust to try to keep them in balance.

Its all in there…

I’m curious…where do you tend to lean - past, present, or future? How does that inform the ways you engage the others?

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Just a few glimpses from Wednesday morning’s sunrise. We have either had 100% clear mornings recently or completely cloudy mornings. Not many in between. This morning was a “just right” type.

The clouds and light here looked like the shape of a comic book explosion

And Scout of course too...Like the queen that she is having the light radiating from her...

Grace, Peace, Love, and Joy,
Ed

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